We caught up with your co-founder Tamara last year. Tell us, what’s changed at RiseUp since then?
Since you caught up with Tamara, we’ve undergone a huge transformation here at RiseUp. We’ve always been laser-focused on how we improve people’s financial wellbeing, and make sure they have the right tools to manage their money. However, we've recognised that our AI technology can have a huge impact beyond the consumer space, and even help to reshape the financial ecosystem.
That’s why we launched RiseUp’s Partner offering, which helps financial institutions plug into the AI economy and leverage open banking data to provide insights for their customers. This allows financial institutions like banks or investment platforms to provide their users with timely, actionable advice that can improve their financial wellbeing, while helping the institution to improve key performance indicators like assets under management (AUM) and deposits.
By aligning the interests of our partners and their customers, we’re not only able to deliver experiences that are data-driven and genuinely user-centric, but also help create a win-win financial ecosystem.
How does RiseUp’s B2B2C model work in practice and what makes your approach more effective than traditional personal finance tools?
The heart of our approach lies in partnerships with financial institutions, fintechs, and open banking platforms. Rather than asking consumers to download standalone apps or input data manually, we integrate directly into the digital journeys of our partners. This means customers receive personalised, AI-powered insights within the banking or fintech app they already trust and use.
Traditional personal finance tools often offer static advice and require significant effort from users. We flipped that model. RiseUp delivers real-time, behaviourally driven nudges based on open banking and behavioural data. Customers receive relevant prompts at the right time, helping them take action like saving, investing, or repaying debt, all without changing their habits or navigating new tools.
For institutions, there is no integration required. Our no-code solution can be deployed in hours, not months.
It’s not just a tool. It’s a monetisation engine that drives meaningful business outcomes from within their existing user base.
What kind of problems are you solving for financial institutions?
Open banking promised to unlock transformative customer data, but many institutions still struggle to extract value from it. The most common challenges include fragmented data, execution bottlenecks, unclear ROI, and difficulty converting insights into action. On top of that, building trust with customers requires delivering immediate, tangible value.
RiseUp helps institutions overcome these challenges. Our AI detects critical financial moments such as idle cash, shifts in affordability, or missed savings opportunities. It then triggers personalised, compliant actions that help customers make better financial decisions. This creates a win-win: customers build healthier habits, and institutions increase revenue without raising rates or spending more on acquisition.
By tying these insights to key business metrics, we enable institutions to drive outcomes like higher deposit reinvestment, increased lending conversion, and improved retention. All of this strengthens the case for open banking as a growth driver rather than just a compliance requirement.
What have you learned from building across both consumer and institutional channels — and how have those insights shaped the product?
Operating on both fronts has been invaluable. On the institutional side, we learned that banks need to see a tangible business impact, not just data, for their open banking initiatives to succeed. Metrics like customer retention, deposits, and product engagement must move in the right direction.
From the consumer side, the biggest lesson is that simplicity matters. People don’t want complicated tools; they want financial advice that feels personal, relevant, and actionable without being overwhelming. Embedding behavioural science deeply into our platform enables us to meet users where they are and deliver advice that truly empowers them.
Bringing these insights together has shaped our product philosophy: we’ve moved well beyond data aggregation to a platform that delivers ongoing, measurable value for both customers and partners, ensuring our solutions scale and drive long-term impact.
As financial institutions get more serious about customer outcomes, what gives RiseUp a real edge in delivering measurable value?
Our edge lies in combining deep AI-driven behavioural intelligence with seamless integration into trusted customer journeys. We don’t just provide data; we transform it into actionable insights that customers can immediately act on, improving their financial health in ways that matter. This approach builds trust, drives engagement, and ultimately moves the needle on business outcomes like deposits, retention, and product adoption, making RiseUp not just a technology provider but a growth partner for financial institutions.
Looking ahead, what’s coming next for RiseUp?
Our team is always finding new ways we can expand our AI capabilities to deliver even more granular, predictive financial guidance. Our main focus over the next 12 months will be expanding our partnerships across the open banking ecosystem, which enables us to embed personalised financial wellbeing tools in more diverse customer journeys. We’ve already announced this year a landmark partnership with Yapily, Salt Edge and others, and there’s plenty more to come in the coming months. Watch this space!
Yuval Samet is the CEO and co-founder of RiseUp.
